palamaro munsell, e., mcgrath, j., mcnamara, k., doyle, o
TRANSCRIPT
Palamaro Munsell, E., McGrath, J., McNamara, K., Doyle, O.
Preparing for Life: Mentor & information officer roles
Individual experience
Part of the high treatment
group
Trained professionals and
paraprofessionals
Assigned to families from
pregnancy
Visit family fortnightly or
monthly
Each visit 30-120 minutes
Support and empower parents
Part of the low treatment group
Trained paraprofessionals
Meet parents once in advance
of birth
Provide information to families
at regular intervals
Can be contacted by families re
child services
Provide parents with
information
Mentors Information Officers
Build a relationship with parents
Provide high quality information
Use Tip Sheets and manual
Text/email parents about events
Provide developmental packs
Cannot give advice on parenting or child development
Mentors Information Officers
Social-Psychological Perspective:◦ Bio-ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2005)
Home visiting programmes:◦ Effective alternative to centre-based programmes ◦ Overcome logistical barriers with hard to reach
groups (Astuto & Allen, 2009).
◦ Provide parents with information & support (Howard & Brooks-Gunn, 2009)
Bordin’s Working Alliance concept (1979)
Home visitor–parent relationship is central to programme effectiveness (Wesley et al, 1997)
Parent and staff opinions on programme can differ (Brophy-Herb et al, 2009)
Qualitative research methods◦ Rich, in-depth research (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006)
◦ Useful for under-researched areas (Smith & Dunworth, 2003)
◦ Researcher-as-lens approach
Semi-structured individual interviews
7 participants: ◦ 5 mentors, 2 information officers◦ December 2009 – January 2010◦ Average interview: 53 minutes
Expectations of the programme
Experience of working on the programme
Satisfaction with the programme
Barriers to implementation
Staff perceptions of programme benefits
Both Mentor and Information Officer:
◦ Strong, clear awareness of programme effects
◦ Ongoing learning curve
◦ Awareness and understanding of challenges
Mentor Themes:
◦ Thought and attention given to own role
◦ Importance of mentor-parent relationship
Mentors Information Officers:
Positive impact on families
Programme materials excellent
“Just taking part” Trickle effect:
recipients pass knowledge to others
Good group sessions available to families
Positive impact on families
Materials useful & practical
“Just taking part” Developmental packs
enable rapport Community beginning
to embrace programme
“The tip sheets are the core of the programme and they have such an effect, they make such
an impact on their lives”
“being a part of a programme, it still
seems to help [parents]. And even if it is just that they meet with me and
have a chat, it does seem to have a positive
impact on them”
“It’s great when you see a mother cooking
something...just being aware of the children
and themselves as well...they’re much
more confident”
Learning from families Learning from the
programme itself Mentors and families
learning together Learning how to
negotiate the relationship
Learning from colleagues: different backgrounds
Increasing own parenting skills
Learning the value of play
Increase own social awareness
Mentors Information Officers:
“professionally I always feel that I’m learning as
well as I go along...I have learned an awful
lot since I started here”
“You can say...’I don’t know a lot of things and
you have to correct me’, and I think the
minute you say [that] to a parent...that gives them a little bit of
power as well”
Local culture Resistance Change is slow Fidelity to the manual Coping mechanism:
development of strategies
Local culture Engaging hard-to-
reach groups Administration difficult Heavy workload Sticking to the
boundaries of the role Frustration at not
being in the high treatment group
Mentors Information Officers
“the overwhelming sense is of...”no way, this is not what we do around here”...and it’s hard to chip away at
that”
“you can invest millions & millions on your
advertising campaigns...if it’s not
word of mouth, they just won’t believe you”
The aims of the mentor role:
Dispense information Modelling Empowerment and encouragement Clear communication
The finer details...
◦ Be persistent, but patient◦ Maintain boundaries◦ Have realistic expectations◦ Value small changes◦ Respect parents
“you’re not going to address an awful lot of the issues that come
up, so you just have to be rigorous about your boundaries...what you
can and can’t do”
“you find some little avenue...some little tiny
thing that works with them, you sort of latch onto it straight away and...move on from
there”
Relationship is key to programme success◦ Mentors help parents by listening and being
friendly
Building trust is an essential part of the role
“I have one mother say to me once...”oh like I should go on now...I’ll
let you get back to your work”...that’s so great.”
“”Here’s somebody who has nothing else on the agenda except to listen to what this person is
saying, and some mums don’t have anybody else like that in their
lives”
Findings support studies by Wesley et al (1997) and Bordin (1979) who place the relationship at the heart of programme success.
Barrier of family and local culture is slowly being broken down but some hard to reach groups are not being accessed (Astuto & Allen, 2009).
Compare staff perspectives to perspectives of parents in focus groups (Brophy-Herb et al, 2009).
Do follow-up interviews to identify changes over time.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making Human Beings Human: Bioecological Perspectives on Human Development. Sage.
Howard & Brooks-Gunn, 2009 The Role of Home-Visiting Programs in Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect. The Future of Children , 19(2), Preventing Child Maltreatment,119-146
Bordin, E.S.(1979). The generalisability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, Vol 16(3), 252-260.
Wesley, P. W., Buysse, V., & Tyndall, S. (1997). Family and professional perspectives on early intervention: An exploration using focus groups. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 17, 435-456.
Brophy-Herb, H. E., Horodynski, M., Dupuis, S. B., Bocknek, E. L., Schiffman, R., Onaga, E., et al. (2009). Early emotional development in infants and toddlers: Perspectives of Early Head Start staff and parents. Infant Mental Health Journal, 30, 203-222.
Braun, V. & Clark, V.(2006). Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2), 77-101.